140 Glasgow Science Centre, Halloween Party 2023 – 20th October 2023

	Location
	Science Centre, Glasgow 18:00 – 21:00
	Mission Report
	Due to a clash of diaries the first night of the annual GSC Halloween event ended up somewhat sparsely attended this year. Ironically it did rather mean that those who were in attendance probably got more attention from the public with a lack of named characters. As trying to use the lift in the building is always a load of nonsense the reduced numbers actually made getting around slightly easier and meant there weren’t 20-odd characters milling around the same space all night! Although I was flying solo as a GB there was a surfeit of willing apprentices, both wearing their mini flight suits and otherwise seasonally attired, especially once word got round that replica “Rookie” name badges were being handed out with the occasional double-dipper trying to chance their arm too. Curiously it was the adults that needed an explanation of what the gifts were, the kids got it straight off the bat (a pun I wish I’d planned in advance) which resulted in an elaborate explanatory mime to one group who spoke no English… Contrary to my complaints of previous years, the music was much reduced, certainly in volume and perhaps even in venue, which would have made the event much appropriate for the pack sounds had I wired them up, which I hadn’t because… music… and more pleasant in general were I not breaking in a new pair of boots during the proceedings. Nonetheless the evening proceeded at a rapid clip, the three hours punctuated with an equal number of breaks certainly didn’t outstay its welcome. During the evening it became apparent that some members of the public had assumed that, like them, I was an attendee! While discussing why this might be it was commented upon that it could be because I was standing somewhat removed from the rest of the costumers. To me there was nothing remarkable about this and I explained confidently that to the best of my knowledge franchise mixing was somewhat frowned upon and indeed at larger events the mingling of different trilogy costumes is generally a thing to be avoided. In retrospect though I had my doubts about my claim and wasn’t sure this is still adhered to, but looking at the photos of the senior club it still does seem to be an aspiration if nothing else.
	Personnel
	Visual Archive

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131 Glasgow Science Centre, Halloween Party 2022 – 28th October 2022

	Location
	Science Centre, Glasgow 18:00 – 21:00
	Mission Report
	Quality aside there’s not much variation in these GSC events, wander about trying to find the least warm area to stand in, pose for photos and interact with the public. It’s the last of these which make the events memorable or otherwise and fortunately this one fell into the former category. The night started as they often do (except when we’re hideously late getting kitted up or they admit the public early) with a wander down to the ticket desks, past the admission queues and outside to the entrance to greet the later arrivals. Almost straight off the bat Doctor Thompson and I spy a pair of creepy twin girls dressed as a pair of creepy twin girls and make a mental note to avoid them for the rest of the night at all costs. While keeping a side-eye on them to ensure they maintained their distance an older woman walks up to us and opens with the gambit “I’ve left my kids on the bus…” Mutually assuming for a second she’s mistaken our flight suits for janitors’ overalls, we begin to try to clarify that we’re not GSC staff and can’t really be of assistance locating her missing toddlers on public transport when she blindsides us with clarification that the kids are in fact 18 and 25 and she’s left them on a nearby parked minibus while she has come over to ask for a photo with the Ghostbusters even though she’s not attending the Halloween event. Moving inside to avoid further random encounters we laugh uproariously at the assembled troopers waiting for the large lift to complete its complex random floor and direction journey and arrive at the ground to allow them to embark, walk past and take the escalators to the first floor. Apon our completion of a circuit of the western half of the building, the lift contingent finally arrived to join us. Part way through the repeated perambulation that followed a young girl approached my fellow paranormal investigator and me for a photograph. She was dressed and wore make-up somewhat reminiscent of a character from Disneys Coco so I made a comment that “it was fine, skeletons aren’t our department” which led her to say she’d seen a couple of ghost costume that evening. “It’s specifically Invisible Ghosts we’re on the lookup for”, I replied as she statred to walk off, “if you see any please let us know…” Stopping and turning she asked how, if they were invisible, she would be able to see them. “They clap their hands, so you know they’re nearby…” I responded and off she walked… Continuing our tour of the upper floors, whereby we spend longer waiting for the lift to arrive and deposit us on a given level than we do on the level itself and we’re blindsided by the creepy twins: “Do you want to play with us?” they sing-song in unison. “No thank you”, we reply equally in unison. While returning to the changing facilities we pass the room set aside for a disco. We’ve passed it each time we’ve left and returning to the meeting room the GSC set aside for us to use, both during this year’s events and in years past with nary a second glance or toe ventured inside but at this exact moment they’re reaching the middle eight of the Ghostbusters theme tune. Doctor Thompson and I venture inside, wandering through the throngs pumping our fists in the air each time the trademark is shouted as the crowd point in our direction as the song winds to its close. And then it starts again. Fearing the DJ has the 12″ remix to hand, we make like undercover News of The World journalists offered goods and services against the law, we make our excuses and left at that point. As the clock neared 20:30 the ground floor of the venue began to quieten down and we elected to call it a night. Thanks to the ISG for the invite and the patches we were presented with, although next time they could stand to unplug the speakers on their rolling barrel shaped plastic PA system before the stage that people are trying to have post event conversations as nobody was interested in the dreadful cacophony being emitted by it or its owner…
	Personnel

124 Science Lates – Sound and Screen – 21st February 2020

Location
Glasgow Science Centre, Glasgow 08:00 – 22:30

Personnel

DRDA-0000	Doug Inman	Dalek
GB-6275	Mark McCreadie	Ghostbuster
ID-15233	Fraser Boyd	Line Officer
SL-77314	Alan Dalgleish	Darth Vader
TA-7240	Julie Sword	AT-AT Pilot
TB-89909	Jenn Mair	Biker Scout
TI-91810	Lynn McDavid	Stormtrooper
TK-18910	Brian McDavid	Stormtrooper
UK-0000	Jamie Hall	Spotter
UK-6084	Stuart Thompson	Spotter

Mission Report
You have to admire the persistence of the Glasgow Science Centre in continuing with these Science Late events as they never seem to have an attendance that would justify the staffing costs.  I suppose we’re equally culpable, we keep turning up to them too although the attendees rarely have any interest in our presence, but although very, very, quiet this was ironically one of the instances better attended by the public.

I struggled to think why it had been marked an induction, until I realised that jokes about the size of Frasers trousers were a clue it was technically his first troop.  He’s been a fixture at events for such long time now between his Mando and RL attendances I just assumed his officer had been cleared months ago, sans branding a quick handshake had to suffice as his welcome to the 501st.

As is normal we started the evening out in the atrium to welcome those visitors that the persistent rain hadn’t kept away but the shorter walk from the car park to the cinema entrance meant that many of them bypassed those of us near the main doors entirely.  Taking the lift to the higher floors revealed them to be practically empty, bar areas aside, and we even ventured to the third floor which is pretty much unheard of as the heat up there is oppressive for anyone in costume when the building is busier.

Looking down from this vantage point showed that the cafeteria was fairly well occupied so after a break some of the troopers elected to take a wander around there.  The mixture of alcohol and voices muffled by helmets seemed to cause some slight aggravation though so it was a visit quickly curtailed.

The most interesting part of the night for me was a journey down the ramp towards the base of the tower.  I’ve never actually been in that area before, as per the long standing local joke the tower itself seems to have been closed due to structural problems/weather/lift being broken for the majority of the time since it’s construction, but being able to see the base and foundations and the explanation of the engineering behind it was as fascinating as the loud AT-AT Walker alike noises of its movement in the wind.

Knowing that a live band was due to start performing in the atrium at 21:00 we took a last tour of this area ahead of time to bid farewell to anyone departing early, but it had long passed the stage where the attendees had started to get slightly grab-y towards the costumes and it was relief to call the night quits…

Visual Archive

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98 Museums at Night : The museum awakens – 27th October 2017

Location
Paisley Museum, Paisley 19:00 – 21:00

Mission Report
Somewhere in Paisley there’s possibly a foreign student from the local university who was at a loose end on Friday night and her and her friend decided to immerse themselves in the culture of the area by attending the Halloween-themed late night opening of the nearby museum. Not only is she perhaps still vainly looking in the wrong part of the building for the wooden object associated with the Titanic to complete the scavenger hunt from that night, but she’s of the firm belief that the museum hires a paranormal investigator once a year to ensure that the artefacts on display don’t react to the build-up of psychic energy caused by visitors. This level of deception is something I should feel bad about. But I don’t.

Instead I feel really good about this event. I have to admit, even leaving aside the couple of hours I had mixed this up with the alcohol fuelled student event at the town hall the same night, I wasn’t expecting much from this troop. It hadn’t been heavily promoted on our boards to encourage anyone to sign up, the organisers weren’t expecting much of a crowd and I was wary that those who did turn up would be local mehoos just in out the cold. Indeed the first two teens I encountered fell exactly into this category, nearly prompting me to about turn and head back to the changing area to de-kit. Fortunately walking in the opposite direction brought me into the main exhibit hall was stowed to the rafters with families who had actually made an effort to embrace the spirit of the event by making costumes and taking part in the activities on offer.

While the TK drew the initial crowd (mostly thanks to the showboating way he slowly descended in the wheelchair lift while I took the stairs) I was left to wander round the display cases and framed paintings scanning them with my PKE meter, which 12 hours later when I could finally recall what the abbreviation stood for I was kicking myself, poking at the headless and armless torsos dressed in vintage clothing to ensure they were indeed solid and not Focussed, Full torso class III apparitions and receiving occasional encouragement that “[I] should check the paintings, it’s always the paintings” and reports of sightings at the opposite end of the museum, the opposite direction of which I always most assuredly made a beeline for.

I much preferred this event to the equivalent at the Science Centre as the museum lacked the constant blaring music of the former allowing much more scope for interaction with the public than simply standing still for a photo. The younger boys of one extended family, spent a substantial amount of time telling me quite seriously of the ghost they had seen recently and asking how to deal with it while their sister, older by two or three years, saw right through my façade and confidentially whispered in my ear that they were big fans of Ghostbusters.

If there were to be downsides, well… it felt kind of off for the staff to nominate myself and the Stormtrooper to be the ones to pick the costume competition winners, I’m kind of glad this didn’t crop up till the very end as there could only be seven winners and there were A LOT of kids who were going to be disappointed.

It’s a rare troop that I would say was too short by half, but this definitely was. Unfortunately the museum will shortly close for the best part of four years so the opportunity to repeat it isn’t going to come along again anytime soon.

78 Glasgow Science Centre, Halloween Party 2015 – 30th October 2015

Location
Science Centre, Glasgow 18:00 – 21:00

Mission Report
Once again it was a pleasure to attend what’s now apparently being branded as Fright Night at the GSC for the third year in a row despite yet another reduction in the number of attendees (although this was deliberate due to ongoing renovation work limiting them to 2,500 ticket sales) and costumers again, but fortunately the Rebel Legion were able to bump that second figure up slightly or it would have been a poor turn out.

As with last year we were mostly contained at the entrance area and the top of the escalators on the first floor although our newly expanded trio of Ghostbusters managed a bit of a brief wander around the place as the evening went on.
Unlike last year however I experienced no hardware disasters having given the pack a bit of an overhaul in the twelve months since.  Well…  I say “twelve months” but most of that was not doing anything then rushing to complete it the week before as usual…

Also in attendance once again with their camera were the crew of The Riverside Show.

As one of the few open face costumers I have to admit to not being enamoured of being told that unlike last year, we weren’t to just wander in the back of shot but that they were looking for an on-air interview.  Fortunately Claire Mackie of the Rebel Legion stepped up to the challenge but at one point in the video you can see me visibly panic that having introduced the Ghostbusters the interviewer was now going to address us directly!
Having learned her lesson last year about avoiding being in the camera shot Julie made sure to stand behind it this time.  Unfortunately she failed to notice that we were all stood in front of a wall made of mirrored panels making her reflection quite visible as the camera pans and so chalks up yet another TV credit.

As is fast becoming tradition the skeleton band were playing on the big screen outside the building.  Unfortunately any opportunity to get the team of paranormal investigators over to eliminate them was scuppered by the same screen looping the latest Star Wars trailer (which at least 66% of the GBs in attendance are choosing to studiously avoid) all night.

I hope the event returns again next year with a greater turnout of costumers, indeed at some point I’d like to actually attend it as a member of the public. The only lesson to be learned I think is that we need to arrive earlier to ensure the staff haven’t eaten all the food by the time we go for dinner!

Visual Archive

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